Following a stellar debut season in 2023, Piastri headed into his second year in F1 looking to build on his early promise.
That included a number of areas he felt he needed to work on. Chief among them was tyre management.
While fast in the early laps of a stint last season, the rookie would often fade in the latter stages as he struggle for grip relative to those around him.
The Pirelli tyres used in F1 have a narrow operating window and need to be carefully managed to extract the best race time across a stint.
It’s a process that is near impossible to replicate in a simulator or testing, given the variables that are introduced in racing conditions.
For Piastri, that meant the only opportunity he had to learn, understand, and improve was in competition.
Buy tickets
Now, 36 races into his F1 career, the Australian feels he’s made steps forward in what is a critical area of performance.
“From that specific aspect, I’ve made a lot of progress,” he told Speedcafe.
“There’s still been a couple of races where it’s been not as good as I would have liked, you know, China, for example, but I had damaged for the second half of the race.
“So I think from that aspect, specifically, I feel like I’ve made really good progress.
“I think Bahrain in particular, being the first of the year, on a track that’s notorious for eating tyres, I felt like I had a really good race.”
Piastri remains almost error-free, an impressive feat for an inexperienced driver, and cool under intense pressure.
He’s also still blindingly fast over a single lap, with little between him and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.
Coupled with the progress he feels he’s making, the 23-year-old is fast establishing himself at the front of the F1 grid.
“A lot of the places where I wanted to improve from last season I have,” he admitted.
“That’s been a really good step forward.
“I think there’s always still things to improve but I think I’m certainly on the way there.
“My qualifying, I have been reasonably happy,” he added.
“The gap between Lando and I has always been incredibly small, so I think that’s always a good reference.
“I feel like from a lot of those different aspects, it’s been going well.”
Victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix made Piastri the newest F1 winner, and the fifth Australian to have won a world championship race.
He sits fourth in the drivers’ championship, 110 points back from points leader Max Verstappen but only 32 away from Norris in second.
Discussion about this post